Julie Kurtzman

I’m not huge into leaving reviews for every this and that in my life. Rather, I save my words for that which is either extraordinary (or rarer yet, extraordinarily awful). Sjaak was such an exceptional find. I was looking for a guide to take me up into the ‘Japanese Alps’ for a few days of hiking. Hitherto, I had thought I could figure out routes using AI and AllTrails. AllTrails is fabulous in the States but gets dicey abroad. AI just makes stuff up. Seriously, if I had tried to use the routes I spent hours assembling with a combo of Gemini and Claude, you’d never hear from again because my completely lost butt would be a part of some bear’s hibernation fattening up game plan. Sjaak came through with customized routes tailored to that which interested me. One of the routes was a newbie to him, so he went and scouted the ten mile loop adjusting for maximum beauty. He’s trained in field first aid and PT taping. Every morning, he’d arrive and tape up my knees and ankles since I’m kind of old and totally clumsy. A lot of foods make me sick to my stomach. But he listened, carefully packing—and carrying—plenty of trail food, lunch, electrolyte tablets, drinks, sugar tablets, trail poles, etc etc. He fluent in Dutch, English and Japanese, and he passionately shares his love of the Japanese culture and traditions. Japan is my favorite country to travel to, and the mountain regions here are astonishing in beauty. The pictures simply won’t do it justice. I would, wholeheartedly, recommend Sjaak to anyone who wants to time in this area to simply take a walk in the woods all the way up to anyone who is a total mountaineering badass. Sjaak can do it all—he’s essentially a super patient, superhuman mountain goat. Add to that, he’s such a gentleman. I consider myself the luckiest traveler in the whole world because I found him. He’s worth every single yen.